Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-03-22
THE CITY OF CROWDS.
New York's Periodical Jams ant
brushes and Mobs of Humanity.


Crushes and MObs of humanity.
NEW YORK, March 19.-New York has
become pre-eminehtly the City OF Crowds.
Elsewhere, except accidentally and infre-
quently, there are no such crowds as we
have every day. at the best, we are all
squeezed together like cats on a wall or
crowds IN q CONSTRUCTED passageway. The
nording of million souls in tenements
occurs to the reader as an illustration, or,
perhaps, he recollects having heard OF a
multitude estimated at about half mill
lion souls turning out to see Barnum
parade, of 10000 men being packed to-
gether in Madison Square Garden to wit
ness noble boxing match, or OF 20, 900
persons assembling in one OF the parks t
knights of Labor meeting-but none of
these are what mean. London and Paris
get up occasional crowds of these sorts
that are so much bigger than ours that to
comprehend them we are forced to see
ourselves as through the wrong end of an
opera glass.
1t is the daily, regular, periodical jams
and brushes and sweats and m0bs OF hui
manity that makes New York unique.
They occur every night and morning and
make an important part OF life { for most
of our residents) a battle and a tumult.
They have grown so gradually that we
take them as matters Of course without
stopping to think OF them. NO one has
thought of describing them in print. \ ct
they are amazing, gigantic and annoy
ing beyond description, and it is certain
that they will expand and swell continu-
ally with no hope OF relief for US for years
to come.
At about O'Clock every weekday night
men, women and children by tens of
thousands begin to travel the streets that
lead to the upper end OF Park row, past
newspaper offices and City Hall. The
factories, shops and Offices are then clos
Ing, and their myriad inmates pour out of
Them, moving in double lines that meet
where the New York end OF the Brooklyn
bridge and the City Hall station of the
Third avenue elevated railroad are side
by side. The vast, dense, slow moving
mass pours into these maws OF
travel for just about two hours, growing
in density between 5 O'Clock and $50
slowly loosening and thinning after 6:30
O'Clock.
Perhaps you think items of thousands"
hasty eXpression-an eXaggerstion.
Oh, no; scores of thousands would be
more nearly correct and yet under the
mark. The elevated railroad carries 500,-
600 passengers a day, and something more
than sixth of this multitude is carried
in these two hours from the City Hall and
Chatham square stations. The Brooklyn
bridge railroad carries 10000 persons
day, and one-third of that business is
transacted in that CONSTRUCTED space of
time, so that we have 100,0 900 to 10000 in
this every evening crush. The crowds
are fearful in the morning, but only half
as bad as at night, because although all
quit work between O'Clock and O'clock
at night, they go to work at widely differ
ent hours in the morninG-say between
5:30 and $3.50. This BrOoKlyn bridge road
IS the banner business railroad of the
world. 1t has only a mile and a third
| OF track, and yet carries more persons
than some of the great railroads OF the
land.
| There are other human presses OF the
| kind at all the elevated stations below
| Canal street aud at all the ferries, the
boats of which are literally covered with
compressed crowds from bow TO stern
during those two hours OF general dis
missal from toll. These ferry crowds
used to be among the sights and wonders
| of the metropolis. They are considered
small try congregations now.
One result of this daily massing of hui
manity has been the development Of rail-
| roading so extraordinary AS to pale all
| other efforts at passenger transportation
! in the past. Over railways that cannot
be widened, with cars that are built In the
| conventional way for ordinary travel, and
from stations that practically take up all
the room there ls, these gigantic crowds are
handled with sucn success that the only
victim of accident on the bridge railroad
has been a man who had his foot crushed,
and the few losses OF life on the eleya ted
have been manly due to eXtra0rdin airy
situations, scarcely to have been antici-
pated or guarded against. The elevated
railroads comprise twenty-seven miles OF
double track, over which, in year, one
hundred and eighty-two and a half mil.
lions of persons ride. The managers now
meet the rush with trains Of fve-oar
lengths, each car holding forty or fifty
persons seated and eighty standing, aud
!. run five minutes apart The Brooklyn
bridge road runs three-car trains, each
car holding 100 persons and The trains be-
ing run minute and "A halfapart. Really,
the railroading on the bridge is the more
amazing of she two. This mile and a thir d
of road carries % 900, 900 passengers a
year. Railroad men from all over the
world sit in the switch house on the New
Y ork end looking on at this sleight OF
band ralrOading in open-mOu' he'd
wonder. some of the coolest OF them have
said that when they saw train after train
come to a stand and empty its load while
another train was coming at ten miles
an hour only 600 feet away their hearts
We're in their mouths. Forty trains
an hour, carrying 1900 TO $4,000 are
thus run without the shading OF minute
to spare.
There is a direct connection between
the root Of the word polish, 20 make
smooth, and the word polls" whica
means a city, and we have gone on to
speak of city folks as polished, apparently
from their getting the rough edges and
corners Of their natures and manners
worn smooth by constant humping and
rubbing against one another. But, though
the idea was never more apt and truthful
than with regard 10 New York At present,
/ doubt whether in such extreme cases
there IL not more OF irritation and oil sore
ness than OF refinement in the process